Bacteria resistance to antibiotic - Essay Example

For instance, antibiotics are used in the treatment of bacterial infections, like pneumococcal pneumonia or staphylococcal infections in the bloodstream. Diseases like influenza, HIV, and herpes are caused by viruses, and antiviral drugs are antibiotics or antimicrobial drugs, which are used to cure diseases caused by viruses. However, the same antibiotic cannot be employed against different bacteria because a single antibiotic cannot fight all types of bacteria. Accordingly, scientists have developed more than fifteen classes of antibiotics drugs.

These drugs vary from each other in their chemical structure and action against each bacterium (What are antibiotics?). Bacteria have become antibiotic resistant, due to the evolution of various mechanisms over a period of time. These mechanisms modify the chemical structure of the antibiotic drug, render it inactive, and remove it from the cell. Some of these mechanisms modify the target site of the antibiotic drug and prevent the bacteria from being recognized by the drug. The most prevalent method is to make the antibiotic inactive by modifying the structure of its enzymes.

Bacteria modify the existing cellular enzyme, by changing the chemical reaction with the antibiotic to divert the drug from attacking it. Several bacteria transform the target site of the antibiotic drug (Todar). Bacteria exhibit an astonishing capacity to develop resistance to antibiotics. This is a live demonstration of evolution. There are several reasons for bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics. The most common factors include excessive use of antibiotics, discontinuance of medication, before the completion of the course prescribed by the doctor, use of antibiotics as growth enhancers for animals, and an increase in international travel (Purdom).

In hospice care, many patients undergoing treatment for a particular ailment develop some other disease, on account of bacterial